Book 1 — Chapter 6 — The End of the Earlier Yehudi Rulers and the Rise of Herod
Eusebius argues that the rise of Herod marks a decisive break in the earlier order of Yehudah. Citing Yosephus, he says that before Herod the rulers and great kohenim belonged to the native people and were tied to ancestral lines, whereas Herod's family was Idumean and bound to Roman power. He treats this as fulfillment of the saying associated with Yaaqov that a ruler would not fail from Yehudah until the expected one came. The chronology is developed through the Hasmonean house, Roman intervention, Antipater, and Herod's appointment. Eusebius also notes instability in the great-kohen office under Herodian and Roman administration, where appointments and removals became politically controlled rather than lifetime hereditary succession. The chapter therefore links the appearance of Yahushua with a transformation in both kingship and priestly governance. Its polemical conclusion is that the older national order had visibly changed by the time the Besorah traditions place Yahushua's public appearance.